Obama’s Radio YouTube Address: Congress Should Act Swiftly To Pass Stimulus Plan

Should this be considered a preemptive political strike? Two days away from a meeting with Congressional leaders and amid increasing indications that Congressional Republicans are likely to try to put a brake on any initial administration proposal for a stimulus plan, President Elect Barack Obama used his weekly radio/You Tube address to urge Congress to pass a plan that he says will create 3 million new jobs.

It’s no secret that Obama wants Congress to act swiftly so that shortly after he’s sworn in on Jan 20th — within hours, in fact — he can sign into law a stimulus plan, a just-came-to-power action that would be both symbolic and seriously substantive. But Republican Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell has already served notice that he wants to slow the process down.

Republicans argue this is to give due consideration to the plan, to ensure that the solution does not become part of a future problem. But Democrats point to one President Bill Clinton who came to power with majorities in 1992 but was immediately given a loud “WHOA!” by then Minority Leader Republican Sen. Bob Dole, who thwarted many of the proposals Clinton had promised in his campaign. Some Democrats don’t think this is about due consideration but politics as usual in the form of clipping Obama’s political wings.

Here’s the transcript of the address.

Why Obama’s sense of urgency?

There are increasing predictions that the despite the guarded optimism of some that a change in leadership could help propel a change in national direction and ease some of the crisis, things 2090 could shape up as a year when things get worse for a variety reasons — including an unprecedented financial crunch now felt by several states. Last month Vice President Elect Joe Biden warned that the economy was in danger of “absolutely tanking.”

Obama address is part of the argument that the U.S. doesn’t have the luxury of delay but has to act swiftly. The question: can Obama stave off what is now being telegraphed as a Republican desire to delay swift passage of the kind of plan he and his team clearly feels to be literally ready to go on Day One? A recent poll suggests that if Republicans sandbag or significantly delay his recovery plans they could face even more political consequences akin to the result in November:

A national poll suggests that three-quarters of the public thinks President-elect Barack Obama is a strong and decisive leader, the highest marks for a president-elect on that characteristic in nearly three decades.

Seventy-six percent of Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday said Obama is a strong and decisive leader.

“That’s the best number an incoming president has gotten on that dimension since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. “The public’s rating of his leadership skills is already as high as George W. Bush’s was after 9/11 and easily beats the numbers that both Bush and Bill Clinton got at the start of their first terms in office.”

Just six in 10 felt that Bush was a strong leader when he took office in 2001. After the attacks of September 11, that number rose to three in four. Sixty-seven percent thought Bill Clinton was a strong leader when he took office in January 1993. Video Watch how Obama compares with his predecessors »

Eight in ten Americans said Obama inspires confidence, can get things done and is tough enough to be president, three characteristics Americans look for in a leader and the three qualities on which Obama got his highest scores.

This poll translate into authentic — to use a popular Chicago word — “clout.” And, indeed the latest is this: Democrat Chris Van Hollen, who invited Republicans to help craft the stimulus plan, predicts a plan will indeed pass by January 20th.